2nd anniversary of Pa. Amish school shooting nears

October 02, 2008

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NICKEL MINES, Pa. — The second anniversary of a crazed gunman’s attack on a one-room Amish schoolhouse that left five girls dead and five others wounded was expected to pass quietly Thursday, reflecting the wishes of the local community.

“We’re going to try to go on with just a normal day,” said Bart Township Fire Chief Curt Woerth. “We’ve been in contact with the families — they don’t want anything, and neither do we, really.”

A year ago, on the first anniversary, state troopers and other guests joined Amish families for a private gathering at the home of a family that lost a child in the tragedy. They prayed and sang together and shared a meal to mark the occasion.

On Wednesday, local Amish people could be seen mowing lawns, working on farms and tending home-based businesses. Several refused to comment on the anniversary.

The only outward sign of the shootings in the tiny crossroads community of Nickel Mines is the New Hope Amish School, which replaced the schoolhouse where 32-year-old milk truck driver Charlie Roberts barricaded himself and the girls before he shot them and killed himself with a 9 mm handgun.

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The school will be closed Thursday, said the teacher, Emma Mae Zook, who declined an interview.

The old building was torn down shortly after the shootings and the site is now an empty pasture.

Four of the five surviving girls have returned to classes, although some require continuing treatment for their wounds. The fifth remains in a nonresponsive coma, according to Dr. Holmes Morton, a physician who runs the Clinic for Special Children in nearby Strasburg.

In July, the grandfather of two girls killed in the attack wrote in the Amish-oriented newspaper Die Botschaft, based in Millersburg, that he had attended a “sudden death gathering” of about 300 people in Goshen, Ind., a few weeks earlier.

“It is interesting to meet different people with the same emotional feeling,” Enos K. Miller wrote. “Not that we planned it that way … but it is final and we have no other choice.”

Miller said the annual gathering may be held in Lancaster County next summer.

Millions of dollars in donations poured in following the tragedy, and that money is being used to pay the victims’ expenses.

The Nickel Mines Accountability Committee, which was established to field the donations, is now entirely in Amish hands, said Herman Bontrager, who had served as the group’s non-Amish spokesman.